The SoundQ Garage
Tech talk for the DIY car audio enthusiast that care about sound quality
The SoundQ Garage
How a Charger Became an Audio Powerhouse in One Man's Garage
A remarkable story unfolds as Chris Pearce takes us through his transformation from garage tinkerer to respected competitor in the high-end car audio world. Working entirely alone with basic tools, Chris rebuilt nearly every audio-related aspect of his Dodge Charger, creating a system that placed 17th at the prestigious Steel Valley Regional competition—holding its own against professionally-built systems.
Chris walks us through his meticulous approach to extreme fabrication, including completely rebuilding his dashboard to create an optimal acoustic environment. His most innovative work involves custom-welded enclosures for dual front subwoofers in the kick panels—a modification rarely seen in daily-driven vehicles. Despite the competition-level modifications, Chris emphasizes that his car remains his everyday transportation, not just a dedicated show piece.
The conversation reveals how immersing himself in online forums and fabrication resources provided the knowledge base for his ambitious build. We hear about a pivotal moment when listening to Brian Mitchell's Cadillac changed his understanding of dynamics in car audio, inspiring him to push his system to new heights. This led to a collaborative relationship with Peter from PS Sound, who was so impressed with Chris's work that he used the Charger as his official demo vehicle at a major competition.
Beyond technical details, Chris offers invaluable wisdom for DIY enthusiasts considering competition. He explains how his first competition resulted in 35th place, which "lit a fire" under him rather than discouraging him. This perspective on competition as a learning process rather than just a venue for validation provides a refreshing take on the hobby. His insights on balancing competition tuning with personal listening preferences will resonate with anyone who loves music but wants to improve their system's technical performance.
Ready to take your car audio system to the next level? Whether you're considering competition or simply want to improve your daily listening experience, Chris's journey demonstrates what's possible with determination, research, and a willingness to learn from the community. Subscribe to hear more stories of audio passion and DIY excellence!
Welcome back listeners. This is the SoundCube Garage podcast, episode 7, with Chris Pierce. Today's guest is the definition of do-it-yourself passion in car audio. Working alone in his garage, chris built one of the most highly modified do-it-yourself cars out there, complete with custom fabrication and even a dash rebuild. He's been competing for just three years but already placed 17th overall at SBR, holding his own against shop-backed bills and pro tuners. Holding his own against shop-back bills and pro tuners. We're going to dive into what it takes to chase sound quality at the highest level when it's just you, your garage and your drive to compete. Everybody. Welcome, chris Pierce.
Speaker 1:Hey, how's it going? This is Chris. The car I'm using to compete is a Dodge Charger Platform to build a sound system in. But man, these Dodges are just rinky little noise-brattling cars. It's hard to get into a high level.
Speaker 2:A lot of us run into that with the cars, that sometimes they're not built all that great from the factory but we got to get in there and slap some dynamat or whatever your, your sound treatment of choice. So yeah shout out to resonant, right, nick. So what got you? What first got you hooked on to car audio and to do it yourself? It's just.
Speaker 1:I'm getting into and I had my first car, kind of like most people, that was team 16, 17,. Just I had my first car, kind of like most people that was teen 16, 17,. Just having something to do with your car, ripping up the rest of the music, giving me something to get away driving around. As a teenager Started now got some car audio fabrication books Can't remember if I ordered them online somewhere or found them at the bottom. I still have reading cover to cover multiple times sitting on my shelf, kind of what was out there and then probably pretty janky, ripping speakers out of dad's minivan because it had infinity on it and I was stock speakers that were in there. So because in there I'm out, pulling the ones out of the rear shelf.
Speaker 1:That bill turned into too much and that car went away after a couple of years and the next pickup truck was more into engine custom and stuff like that. So the sound system I slapped in there to make noise above the loud exhaust it was ahead in every day. So on my next car charge I've had for a couple years swapped speakers out and put the subs in like I used to, but started just doing more research with my hands just to start reading into forums, kind of like I did with engines. Reading forums was what got me into the business with the engines, like, oh, if I swap out something, then you learn.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not just the exhaust, it's the headers. It's not just the headers, it's the intake. Well, it's not just that, it's this. And that's where I learned a lot with forms. So when I got found dema because those popular ones and just started reading, started learning more about what a dsp was, more the higher modification like placing a couple speakers in a stock location wasn't going to be enough. I did that first and I'm listening to it. I'm like this, this isn't sounding like. I remembered when I was like must be missing something, or you know, looking at the past and rose glasses. But that's when I started reading in. Well, what does it actually sound good? And that's what kind of started the journey I'm on right now.
Speaker 2:So can you paint a picture for us of your garage setup? What's it like building at home?
Speaker 1:I have a fairly small kind of only fits one car, small to fit two, so that makes it easier to work because it's big enough to work around it and a couple cabinets I've got from jobs doing tear outs so I got a bunch of free cabinets so I've built myself shelves and some workbenches, heavy tables and stuff. I have a fairly decent wood shop in my because I've been in the woodworking for a long time. It shows off in some of the stuff I do with how my trunk looks and some of my home speakers are made with that woodwork. They're kind of I am skill and tools and stuff like that. So in the basement and decent garage area I'll try to do a little bit of everything in the fabric, do some welding, woodworking, normal stuff you expect with car audio fabrication.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow. So you're like a jack of all trades.
Speaker 1:Kind of I've done construction for years, so it's kind of just somewhat comes natural work, some sort of fabrication or building stuff.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, if you've been on the dimer group for a long time, that's kind of how it started back in the day. I'm not sure how long you've been on there, but I think I've been on there since 2007. That's kind of like how it started. You know it's called the do-it-yourself mobile audio, so a lot of the guys that that were on there used to do their own work. But what made you decide to go all in on fabricating or rebuilding the parts of your car instead of taking the easy path you know, like bringing it to a shop?
Speaker 1:It was well for me, not really interested in it. I'm much more I enjoy the build, playing out the build work, making the design finish product. I enjoy working more than I enjoy paying someone else to work for me. So that kind of makes that easy For the fabrication. It more of buy something new or kind of my personal favorite vehicles that I've been to in the last couple years. Three years ago I didn't know much of this hobby existed, so all my experience is just going to a whole ton of shows in that time and listening to as many as I can.
Speaker 1:And the wild fabrication ones, the ones that you look at and you can tell above and beyond, are the ones that have always stuck with me the most and the ones I've enjoyed. Not that there's anything wrong with a stealth OEM style. That build doesn't appeal to me quite as much as seeing someone that ripped this apart and rebuilt this and made it my own, versus sometimes more just taking advantage of stock locations and doing stuff like that. So it's just my natural progression build because I'll build something crazy and I'm like, well, if this part's crazy, I need to make. Like, well, if I did this crazy install on the mid-range, it's on the mid-base, it needs to keep up with it. And well, if I did that on the on the mid-range, it was on the mid-bass and it's keep up with it. And well, if I did that on the mid-bass, front subs have to be at the same level and kind of that snowball gets rolling in my head.
Speaker 2:So you know it's funny. I've been in this hobby since like the 90s, maybe even actually like late 80s. You know a lot of us are into the sound quality and the cars that image and we cut, you know the, the sq guys kind of got like a pinky up kind of reputation, if you know what I mean, since the 90s. It's funny that you said that that the installs that caught your eye were the ones that were over the top. But even back in the 90s the installs that always got the attention were the big one. You know the flashy ones. It was always the, and the ones that were like that were a lot of the demo cars and some legendary names out there.
Speaker 2:I can't think of them off the top of my head right now, but you know a lot of like it's ironic. It's kind of ironic that the, the installs that get the attention, or the big, you know attention grabbing ones like that, and a lot of times you know they're they're the big, booming systems. But it's just funny. I we're into sound quality but the ones that get the attention are always the ones that are flashy yeah, this kind of comes and goes.
Speaker 1:It seems like now there's a little bit more of a trend for keeping stuff lower profile installs and some people take a lot of pride in being able to do that style have a crazy-sounding system while keeping it unseen, which that's awesome in its own right and I'm not taking away from that. Maybe one day I'll get to that point. You get tired of doing the crazy building and then you're like well, maybe the next challenge is doing a hidden OEM system.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of, tell us a little bit about your car, like what's unique about your setup compared to others. I know you spoke that yours is a little on the, you know, on the flashy side, and you like the that type that style what what's, what separates yours from others?
Speaker 1:well, probably the front end dash modifications car that was is basically a daily driver. There's not too many cars out there right now that go to the effort of pulling the dash or rebuilding the dash or the corners, the kicks open, the weld-in enclosures and stuff like that and still be a complete daily drivable car. There's cars that have a lot of fabrications like this but they're more kind of cars or they get they can drive but like a show car. Mine is kind of a blend between a daily driver and a show car with as much modification as I can physically fit and keep it. Modifications I can physically fit and keep it. I mean, if you look inside my car the dash is chopped down. The whole reason for that is the Dodge Charges have very huge hump that goes. That covers about three quarters of the dash, starting from like the passenger airbag all the way over to the other side. That raises up, you know, three, four, five inches. I thought that that was giving me issues from. You know a lot of people talk about how much they like the big flat dashes on a lot of cars and mine definitely wasn't. That I'm like. Well, I think with enough work I can make it flat, so chopped a lot of that out and spent a lot of time fabricating a flat cover to go over it, dressing it in and just learning more fabrication techniques and taking time. You get it all done and you go well. Now that it's all done, I can see an issue here. This could have been done better. So I've rebuilt the dash at least twice.
Speaker 1:Now, if you want to consider for a rebuild, I did the big one last winter see winter of 24 and got that. That was my main big build after I got home from see 2023 finals, I think the first year in birmingham. Kind of what started the whole thing was I already had a fairly full-blown system to begin with, and going down to Birmingham as my car, the motor went out on me in the middle of Kentucky. Oh wow, camelifters started eating each other up and started tapping really bad in the middle of Kentucky. The Hemis are somewhat known to do that. So I didn't want to push it all the way to Alabama but I wasn't going to give up on it. So I rented a U-Haul truck and a trailer nearest place I could find, loaded it up and drove it the rest of the six, seven hours to get there. So that was I knew I had to rebuild the engine.
Speaker 1:I always kind of had some plans on putting a bigger engine in this car. I had leftover parts from my old engine build I was talking about in my truck. So that turned into replacing the engine. And then, while I had it down, I'm like, well, let's swing for the moon for some of these modifications I want to do. And I even had a couple of people tell me like don't go this crazy. It's already sounding pretty good as it is.
Speaker 1:A lot of times you do these big builds and even if they come out how you think it doesn't meet your expectations or you kind of overhype it in your mind and it doesn't play out as well. So going in, I knew that it's just the way I work. I just need to have that project. The project is three-quarters of the enjoyment for me. So I like building and I like doing all that stuff. So I did all the work and at the end of the day, after it's been all tuned and I'm lot of the uh getting feedback keep working on it, tweaking it it's been sounding the best it ever has and it's purely enjoyable. Everything I've done I've been very happy with proud of a couple of those things, so it was worth it in the end of the day yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2:Sometimes just by by changing like a mid-bass driver or some mid-range drivers, it changes everything completely. And you're like, why did I do that? But then you just kind of got to regroup and retune and you know, just basically test and tune, test and tune until it starts sounding good again. There's just something. There's something wrong with us. We're always chasing that that one or 2% more. You know we're always chasing that that one or two percent more. You know we're trying to squeeze out the most we can out of our, out of our drivers or out of the build. And you know, but uh, what part of the fabrication or the dash rebuild challenge you the most? Like, what was the hardest part of doing all that custom fabrication?
Speaker 1:I think the part that I struggled with the most was. I think the part that I struggled with the most was integrating the top of the dash rebuild and getting it kind of blended into the existing what was left.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And making it all kind of work together. Yeah, so the first rebuild I did. I put the car into the garage about November, I think, the car into the garage about November, I think. And then I worked approximately seven to eight months straight on the entire build, between the engine, stuff that went along with that and then the whole audio system Going into it. I knew I was going to do an extreme build and I was shooting to do it in the extreme class, especially in IASCA Extreme Open, why they had it. So I knew going into it, while I was building it I needed to build and document it as an extreme build to be able to compete with install. So, making sure I took the time to do everything right, document it all and put the time in it. So it was worth it in the end. That was approximately eight months straight and that was almost every night a couple hours after work, majority of the weekend spent on it.
Speaker 1:It was a grind and towards the end it was turning into a real grind, especially when the shows started coming up. I started missing the first couple shows of the year because it was still completely torn apart and that that's the frustrating part of it, the top of the dash really kind of kicked my butt for a while just coming up with the overall flow and how it blended in and how I could get it to fit and to stay stay secure. The airbags was a thing that I didn't want to lose because it's still a daily driver I drive with my wife, she drives his car, we go to trips, so integrating, keeping the airbag functional and safe while I still have the top of the dash rebuilt was a challenge. Mick Wallace, mick Tennis, I think on DEMA A lot of people know him, one of the big, most well-known judges. He saw some of the posts I was making, asking some questions like hey, how to do this? And he messaged me like, hey, I did something real similar in one of my BMWs a couple years ago. Here's some pics on how I did it and that was a real light bulb moment on change up, how I was looking at it and I was able to get it, get a build just like that. So that was the first build.
Speaker 1:Towards the end, you know, some of the shows were creeping up. I wanted to be at HVR in 2024 was the first one I was able to roll out to and it was still like 90% done, so it was kind of a rush at the end and some of the stuff just wasn't quite as nice as what I wanted to. I just needed to spend more time, you know, ironing it out, making it look better. So I got through that year competing and over the winter I wanted to change.
Speaker 1:I lucked into a set of mid-range drivers I'd been looking for for a while and I'm like, all right, if I'm going to rebuild these into it, then I may as well spend some more time on the dash cover and reshape that, rework some of the HVAC vents. I was able to beef up the inside of the dash a lot more, tie everything a lot better together, chase more rattles Just stuff that after you live with it for a year, you start getting the mental checklist in your head like, okay, this is an issue needs fixed, and working through that. So I rebuilt it, rebuilt the pillars, changed the position of the MTs I'm using and now it looks 10 times better than what it what it did originally. So I'm a lot happy with the work I did this spring. I spent about four or five weeks doing kind of a refresh on it.
Speaker 2:So did you ever think looking back? Was there a moment where you thought, man, what the hell did I get myself into?
Speaker 1:Yeah, quite a couple. I mean, I know I'm going to be working on one thing or the other, so it's just the project I'm in. One way or the other it's got to get done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hear that Sometimes you start to it's like opening up a can of worms, and other times you do one thing and you get another problem. That's that's happened to me before, where I'm working on the car and I accidentally break something, or something breaks on the door and I'm like, oh man, I should have just, I should have just left this alone. So you worked with peter from uh ps sound right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's been a really big inspiration and a really big help all the way from the beginning. Right about the time I was starting into it, I think I found his channel or page. I don't even remember how I found him, but I spent a lot of time watching the videos and then occasionally talked back and forth with him. I even did some one or two consultation calls with him. One call ended up in just like a three-hour long video chat just sitting there talking about building stuff. So he's been a real big help. So when he came to US at the finals of that year, that was one of the biggest reasons I kind of pushed through getting my car there, even though I was broke down halfway, like I'm not missing this chance to actually meet him, because coming to the states is probably pretty rare. So we were able to meet there, talk about some stuff, kind of planned out some stuff, and that's when I did the rebuild afterwards there.
Speaker 1:So one of the more extreme parts of what I did was my build is having pretty large you can call them front woofer, front stuff large, mid-base, whatever. But I did my mid-base higher up in the dash inside, like the like deep buried in the dash up up higher. That was going to be my mid-base install, so I got that done first and and I'm like, all right, so I'm still using the front sub and I need to figure out where it's going to be, probably in the passenger footwell. I didn't know if I was going to go IB or sealed or something, but I wanted something special. So after the mid-base were out of the way, in the kicks, I'm like, well, I can put this front sub in the kick area, but it's going to look kind of weird just having one buried all the way over there. I start looking at the difference between the two sides and the kicks and I start realizing that they're almost identical on each side. The frame shaped the same way. Whatever opening was on the passenger side is on the driver's side. And I got my head spinning. You know what? I wonder if I could do dual front subs. Not many people are doing that.
Speaker 1:I already had an Acoustic Elegance 10-inch that I was using as my front sub. I'm like, well, I want to use this because these are really, really good drivers. But I had waited over four months to get the one I had, and that was before the lead times jumped through the roof two years ago I don't know if it was COVID tariffs or just stayed at a shop on how they were building them. The wait times were past six months. There's no way I'm going to get another tenant sub. Nobody was selling them. I couldn't find one.
Speaker 1:I mentioned it to Peter one day in a message. I was like you know, I'm kind of thinking dual front subs would be pretty awesome to take this kind of a standout. He goes well, I've got a ten inch sitting right here, I can send you it and then you can just replace it. I'm like well, I'm not sure if this sounds good, but getting one all the way from England is kind of a hassle, don't worry about it. This is when I was buying the AMTs off of him, because this was right when he was putting out his PSOM version of the AMTs, he was already sending those to me. So a couple days later he messaged me and goes oh hey, here's the tracking. I'm sending that sub to you. Just replace it when you can. I'm like good grief. So he just sent it right off his shelf.
Speaker 1:A couple days later I'd already found a used one posted up on DEMA. So we just kind of exchanged it and sent it back to him. But that was really helpful. Right in the middle of the build, when I didn't have time to get a new one, he was like, yeah, I'll just send it to you. So kind of went up above and beyond helping with that so that all kind of culminated. He was coming to Steel Valley that year. When we got there we get to talking. Since I was one of the very few that had his AMTs, I was like all right, well, we've been talking for so long, I want to tune your car, jumps right in at SVR, spends about an hour, puts full-blown Peter Tune on it and for that whole weekend we kind of used my car as his PS sound demo vehicle for the weekend.
Speaker 1:So I think, he gave demos, as I did, and there was you know one point I think I was in my car for about five hours straight, just one after the other. He was pulling. People were like oh, I'm interested in your three years, all right, came over and gave people demos. So we beat the living crap out of my car for three straight days and I pissed a lot of people off. But a lot of people had fun, so it probably works.
Speaker 2:Probably pissed a lot of people off, but a lot of people had fun, so it probably works this. No, but that's a huge vote of confidence, for you know what I mean To have a guy like Peter, you know, want to sit there and show off your car, so that that shows that you you doing something, right, right?
Speaker 1:Yep. And then, uh, this year's SVR, he did pretty much the same thing for a guy named Adrian. This year's SVR, he did pretty much the same thing for a guy named Adrian who came from Milwaukee, minnesota or Wisconsin or something. He visited the training that Peter was putting on in the area, brought his car and Peter tuned that and then he made it to SVR and they used his vehicle as kind of the same thing this year, now that mine's all kind of ironed out and working as it should. So it was like the next guy to get that treatment. You know, maybe there'll be someone next year.
Speaker 2:So this year you placed 17th overall in SBR right.
Speaker 1:I did this year as kind of talked about in the last couple podcasts was pretty stacked, Going, looking ahead and talking to all our buddies and stuff that were going to start seeing the names getting released and who was all coming. We're like this is kind of crazy. For everybody coming out there's probably like three cars missing that are normally there, were like, are normally pretty high up, so even then there's a couple people missing. But we're all talking heads. I'm like man, if any of us place top 20, you just got to walk away and be happy with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet. Because, competition is pretty stiff at SVR.
Speaker 1:It's stiff and very close. It's decided by so few points in between. Sure, it's been brought up before, but you could jump eight, ten places by. You score an average of three points higher, you jump ten places. So it was all really tight. Normal top ten you'd expect are there, and then after that it's just kind of you got lucky enough to get a couple points in the right direction and it was kind of funny.
Speaker 1:I'll probably never forget this. But my whole weekend I'm like, all right, I, if I can score top 20, I'm gonna be overjoyed. But I don't like to keep my expectations realistic, like, hey, it might not happen. You never know what one small issue you may not even be in your car or your tune that's going to tank you two points, and that's the difference of making it or not. So I'm sitting there and they're calling all top 20, and I'm seeing everybody go up and I'm like there's too many guys I know that can beat me are going up and it gets down to the very, very last call. I was the last call 20th person and it kind of shocked me. I'm like, oh man, I actually did make it. So I'm sitting there seeing everybody go up. I'm like ah, oh well, I guess it just wasn't in the cards this year and very last name, I get called up and I about ran up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that must have felt good, huh.
Speaker 1:Yes, it did. I was very happy. And 17th doesn't sound impressive until you're actually at the show and you see the 17 cars ahead of you and there's a couple behind you that you're able to place ahead of and you're just happy to be up there and running. Pretty much is the tune that I've been working on from scratch over the year and going to a couple shows getting the feedback, putting the work in that wasn't done by anybody else. I was very happy with that yeah, yeah, that's quite.
Speaker 2:That's actually quite an achievement, I'll be honest with you. So so the guys, the do-it-yourself guys out there that thinking about giving not just as we are, but competing a shot, what one lesson you think you learned from competing that you'd pass on to them.
Speaker 1:Viewing competition with the right mindset and viewing it realistically, on seeing it for what it is and what you can get out of it and what you can put into it.
Speaker 2:It's kind of hard explaining it, no like no, I get what you're saying because you know, going in there, realistically, some people, sometimes people go in and they got a lot of blood, sweat and tears building their car and they go in and they might not even place and they might get mad and just, you know, kick a rock and be like, ah, you know, kick a rock and be like, ah, you know, I'm not doing this, no more. And it's like you got to remember people like you and others who have been competing or just grinding at it. You guys are also grind, you know, going at it on your purse, on your own cars and your own bills. There's people out there who are dropping big money with shops. You know, not everybody, but you know there's a lot of do-it-yourselfers. There's a lot of people got or backed by shops, backed by sponsors or whatever. So they're already, they've already put in the time, sweat and energy into that car. So, coming in, you know, don't get discouraged if you don't place, you know, in the top 20 or something like that. That's, that's the lesson I would give guys. You know what I mean Because I remember when I used to compete, I used to get mad and I wanted to rip out my system and it was like, especially if you're the competitive type.
Speaker 2:But you know, that was my younger days, when, when you know wasn't as intelligent well as wise, I wouldn't say intelligent but I'm a lot wiser now. You and and and you know, if I take a loss now I'm like, but back then I would take a loss and I'd take it personal and the shops loved it because that was one of the reasons back in the 90s that shops loved having competitions because people would like rip out their amp or rip out their mid-bases. It meant it was money for the, for the shops. But things are a lot different now. You know what I mean. But I that that's just my take on it, that's just my two cents. That you know. Don't, don't get discouraged. Competing is a lot of fun. You meet a lot of people. You make a lot of friends. I've got lifelong friends from the, from the dyma group, from you know that I never would have met like-minded audiophiles yeah you know and and it's, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:So even if you don't win, it's still to me it's fun. You know what I mean. Even, even, even when I don't compete, it's still fun to me. You know, going to the get-togethers and stuff like that. But yeah.
Speaker 1:So kind of going into it is what I'm kind of getting at is learning to play the game and kind of figuring out the expectations of competition.
Speaker 1:You know, you keep hearing you read all the posts on it people complaining about competition format. They're like complaining about bias, complaining about well, I've heard top sound cars and they sounded bad. Or I don't like the way the judges are listening to this, or you read all that and you don't know what their actual experiences, or if they showed up to one show or they've been doing it for 30 years and they noticed that. But learning, learning the game behind it and all the little nuances on how you're seeing people, how you're interacting with people, how you're seeing people, how you're interacting with people, your attitude, going into it makes a big difference If you're there to learn and do better at it versus showing up, thinking you got it and everybody has to accept what you got. Versus kind of showing up and realizing, hey, this is what I got, but in order to play the game for competition and following the rules and doing it, you might have to change up your reference or how you're looking at it. And just because the one thing I always kind of see people complain about.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't like having multiple tunes or a competition or a judge's tune. I just wanted to sound the way I want it, like we have DSPs for a reason and it's not that hard to have even just two tunes, one that's your. The way I've kind of always done it was start off with a baseline and then I have have one tune that I kind of tweaked to my own for driving in different seating position, different noise levels for driving around, and then there's a competition tune that I kind of start off with a baseline and then I tweak that as I get feedback from the judges and what they're expecting, what they're hearing. I may transfer some of those over to my normal everyday tune, I may not, just depending on what it is. And then I find myself when I'm driving around I'll switch between the two and they both have their pros and cons for just daily listening.
Speaker 1:To me one's not worse than the other. They do different things. Kind of my preferred genre of music that I'm normally going around blasting to is some heavy metal band or heavy electronic or stuff like that and that takes a little bit of a different tuning profile and listening to some 1980s weird classic rock songs. The judges still use them for God knows what reason, because they are very annoying to me. But they've been listening to the songs for 30, 40 years and they know what to expect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, familiar I can't even say the word years, and they know what to expect. So, yeah, familiar, familiar, I can't even say the word they're familiar with, with that word, with that, with that song. So they know what what they're listening for. Yeah, although I think sometimes that some cars like me. I have a set list of songs that sound really good in my car and if I play those same songs in another person's car they might not sound that good.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So it's kind of setting your expectations, learning the game and not getting discouraged in the beginning because it's not matching up. Like my first year competing and I go to SCR, I knew I was in over my head and showing up so big I had a couple local shows under my belt, starting to get the idea of the routine down and how the formats are handled and like first year there I think I placed like 35th overall. Oh wow. And man, that lit a fire under me because I did not like going away with 35th place. So that lights up my competitive spirit. I'm like, well, I'm doing this, I'm not doing it that bad, I'm going to find out what I'm doing wrong and I'm going to fix it. And placing well at local shows is pretty nice. That's where you kind of go to get the feedback in a more beginner-friendly format and you can spend more time at local shows than when you go to get the feedback in a more beginner-friendly format and you can spend more time to local shows. But when you go to the big shows you got to use all that prior experience and bring your A game. So that's kind of what sends me in a tailspin of building and doing better. And when you get to the big shows at some point, just your name recognition and face you know people seeing you around, that that's what starts getting you like, hey, that car's kind of special. Seen it a couple of times and you get the buzz going about it versus you know some car that you know.
Speaker 1:If you, if you're showing up to show and put yourself out there, you go meet some people, go listen to cars, start getting your reference set, figure out how other people are making their car sound. You start making friends, start hanging out with people, you start getting more experience, more feedback from people. That's really what kind of starts start the ball rolling on. You know, when you're going to shows and you're meeting friends there and getting better versus just showing up, not getting what you want, get angry at the format, leave and never come back. That's where you start getting a little bit of bitterness, like, oh, the judges was just biased, they didn't like my car.
Speaker 1:If you listen to 10 other cars and you start seeing the differences or what they were talking about and, as a dude yourself, or if you don't have that experience listening to cars, getting that sound in your head of a goal in your mind on this is what it needs to sound like to be competitive. That's the biggest thing is. I've been able to sit in multiple cars going. Okay, I can hear the difference between mine and yours, and that's what I need to shoot for is to find the problem. And why does it sound like this?
Speaker 1:One of the biggest keys so first, finals is when I got a chance to listen to Brian Mitchell's Cadillac and he started playing some drum tracks and was sending the volume to like 11, and that car was so dynamic and felt so alive and real, like you were sitting at the drum set hitting yourself. That's when I got out. I'm like I don't know how he did that, but that's what I need to get in my car to truly enjoy. I want to feel that. That's what started.
Speaker 1:My kind of crazy build was to get the dynamics to make it sound alive and insane. Where it was more than just some, just like a quiet 80 dB, nice, easy listening system, I wanted something that would kick you in the chest and that's what kind of set my whole build with. You know, bigger front end, higher levels of modification to be able to handle that, and that's been one of my favorite things with my car is hey, if I want to turn up some crazy stupid metal track and it sounds like I'm inside the drum kit. That's what makes me smile when I'm driving down the road. I've listened to some nice heavy metal albums at 1 am in the morning driving home from a show in New York to keep me awake, and that smile on my face listening to the whole album front to back. I'm going you know what this is worth it. That's what I like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for a lot of us it's cathartic because I know, when I get in my car and I just let the music play, it's it's kind of like that's my getaway from the world. You know, and I don't care how much sound cue people like, everybody likes that kick in the chest. Yeah, you know, everybody's like, oh, I'm not a bass head. It's like, well, you know, when you feel nice, kick drum kicking you right in the chest and you know it's nice and clean and nothing, nothing is rattling. It's not about being a bass head. Everybody enjoys.
Speaker 2:When you go to a concert, you, you know, you feel that thump, you feel that, that, that, that kick drum out there. You know that's what people like, that it's. It's something visceral about it that people just like you know and it's. It's not about being a bass head, or, you know, and whatever floats your boat. Anyway, if you want to be a bass head, you know if it makes you happy and you're not bothering anybody, go for it, man.
Speaker 2:You know, if you want to, if you want to have an 80 decibel system and you want to hear the you know the every little nuance of of a guitar pluck, go for it. Whatever makes you happy. You know, I think, going to these things, these events and competing anyway, even if you come out in 50th place and you're getting in other people's cars, you're, you're getting a reference. Like you said, you got into brian mitchell's caddy and you're like, okay, this is what I need to compete, or this is what I need. Even if you're not going to compete or you just want to make your car better overall, it's great to get in there and get a reference for what it's supposed to sound like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like another car off the top of my head. I can remember kind of said something off my head was listening to Larry Ng's car. He's from California. I think Scott Welch has a pretty big hand in that build and tune and stuff. So I finally got to hear it at Axpona this year and his car was, you know, really detailed. As he's given a demo he's kind of explains like this is the way I like my music to sound. I don't like a very loud dynamic system. I like mine more clinical, more pure, like a home audio setup kind of.
Speaker 1:But what hit me with his was how detailed and focused his bass was and just how dialed in there was bass notes that seemed small and so far away that it was a different experience. You know, once you start hearing bass you know it's either in phase or out of phase or just doesn't quite match up. That's always hard dialing in and once you hear it you're like, okay, that's what I'm missing is that level of focus and your bass being locked in with the music or even behind the music. So I go home and start retuning and he's giving me scott was giving me some tips on how to achieve that and I put them in and flipping back and forth between the tune I showed up with and the tune that I left with, like, okay, that was what I was missing in this was that level of detail in it. You only get that if you walk up to someone and say, hey, show me what you got, and then try to get a takeaway from it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly that's what I was talking about. Because you never know your system. You tune it a certain way. You'd be surprised what it's capable of, especially if you have, you know, really good install, really good components in there and you got an ear for tuning, you know. So I know you've been on a on a lot of road trips and stuff like that. You got any uh favorite memories from the shows or the road trips where your car became more than just a competition piece in the shows or the road trips where your car became more than just a competition piece.
Speaker 1:Last fall it was probably one of the best trips I've had so far. Luke O'Kellett, old Rick Wilson he was throwing his fall get-together up in Maine. It was the same time frame as finals. I don't know if I want to go to finals. It was a pretty long trip down there to begin with and finals gets pretty expensive. It's a multi-day trip and it's not as fun to take the wife to because that's a lot more like heavy competition schedule and you got to get there early and I might not make it this year.
Speaker 1:So I decided to go to that. I took the wife with me and made a nice road trip all the way up there and hit some sightseeing spots Always want to go to. I've always wanted to see, you know, the Northeast and fall and that was pretty close. Peak like leaf season, color changing season, yep. So that was kind of a bucket list trip, yep, like Shuler or Schiller or something like that reached out and gave me a very detailed list of multiple different ways I could go through Vermont, new Hampshire, maine, certain sightseeing places to go Like a very detailed like if you're going to go this way, take this road to this town, take this road out to this town. This is a good drive. And then he kind of pointed out Mount Washington. And I looked into that and came up with a road trip and we hit Niagara Falls, drove through upstate New York, vermont, new Hampshire and we drove all the way up to the top of Mount Washington on the private road that they have. I think that's what the highest peak in the eastern US, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been through there.
Speaker 1:That was awesome. That was absolutely awesome experience driving up there. So that was one of the best road trips I've taken in a while. And that's one of my favorite things about competition and the meetup scenes is I like traveling and this gives me very good excuse to be able to drive out of state and go to places that I wouldn't be going if I was just sticking around the house for the weekend instead. So I've been out to Chicago for Axpona, alabama for finals, virginia for some of the DEMA meetups, new York a couple times Maine. So the traveling is honestly one of my favorite parts when I have time and are able to make it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and finally getting to not just meet but sometimes meet members that you never even met in person and you've been talking to for years, and also just get to meet up with members and friends that you do have but you only get to meet in person at these get togethers or the competitions. It's always nice, you know, you start to develop a close friendship with a lot of people. But yeah, I missed Luke's get together this last go around. I wanted to go but I had to work. I was upset. I couldn't go.
Speaker 2:That was a good one too. And I've seen I was upset I couldn't go. That was a good one too. And I've seen, I've. I've seen your car several times. I've wanted to get a listen, but every time that I try to get a listen there's there's like a people sitting there doing demos You're doing demos for, and people want to hear my car, and I just never got around to it. I got, I got to sit plunk, plunk my butt in that front seat driver's's seat. One of these days, next time I see you.
Speaker 1:So which shows were this? Where were we almost running into each other?
Speaker 2:I saw your car at HBR right. You were there this year or last year. You were at both, weren't you?
Speaker 1:Last year. I had plans to do a different show this year in Cincinnati so I passed on HBR, but then the Cincinnati show got canceled, so I missed both of them Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And then I think I saw your car at Luke's. You were at Luke's get together last year, weren't you or?
Speaker 1:the year before. It would have been last fall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was at that one and I didn't get to sit inside. I had to leave early. I was there, for I think I got there from like 10 AM or 11 AM and I had to leave at at two, two or three or something like that. I had to work. I came in with my work outfit and everything and I had to take off and I didn't get to listen to your car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, crazy Nice meeting, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:I, I the last time, like at HBR I was dying to hear it, because everybody was telling me about how you had the kick panel midbases and you did a bunch of welding in the kick panel areas, right? Is that where you did the work?
Speaker 1:Yeah, come on. Yeah, in like two locations on each side of the kick. In, the kick is where the subs are at, and then directly above it is a bunch of welded stuff for the midbase. Directly above it. There's a bunch of welded stuff for the mid-based right above it, so yeah, yeah, alan, alan was, like you know, alan right alan is probably one of my biggest fans. I think he talks me up to anybody to listen yeah, yeah, he's like he's. He's president of my fan club. I love Alan.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I've heard his car multiple times.
Speaker 1:I see him a lot of shows and every time he comes over he just has the nicest thing to say I love Alan to death.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he got out of your car and he's like, oh, you got to listen to that car and then you just had multiple people listening. You were doing demos for a bunch of people, so I never got to listen to it. And then I seen the pictures of it.
Speaker 1:It was pretty rough then. So if we ever get the chance, so at least it'll be better than better than that time.
Speaker 2:So uh, so what's the biggest piece of advice you got to someone starting out in in their garage? This is for the do it yourself Listeners out there.
Speaker 1:Watch a bunch of PS sound videos that's actually really good advice right there.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you're need inspiration or he's got so many fabrication tips. And if you take it a step further and do the Patreon, which I've been on from almost since it was started, there's so much information that's out there. So really the only one of the biggest reasons I'm at where I'm at is just from the hundreds of hours of research and just watching videos and absorbing all that knowledge that he's putting out there. So that's one of the biggest things. It just depends on your background of you know hands-on fabrication skills. Not that you can't learn it, but if you, if you got that little bit of a background and you just need the inspiration to kind of just need your head pointed in a certain direction and told go that way, that's, that's a big help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, peter's pretty passionate. I've I've watched, I, I I could say I've actually watched his videos probably two or three times, like each video, you know, cause he's got such good, good nuggets on there that anybody who's into car audio would be stupid not to watch his videos. But what's the difference between just building a regular system, just building a system for your enjoyment, and building a competition, a competitive system?
Speaker 1:there's a level of sound deadening probably yeah, that's a, that's a common, common theme from all the competitors and you can put the hundreds of hours into fabrication and system design and all that and you get it all finished and you show it off to someone. They go. This is awesome, but yeah, you still gotta chase some rattles.
Speaker 2:That's disheartening, to say the least yeah, yeah so and it's rough on some cars too right. Like you said, you were chasing rattles in your car at the beginning. My car was cheaply built so it was a pain in the neck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just thin metal, thin plastic and stuff like that. I talked to some of the guys that have done the Volvos and the foreign cars and stuff like that and they're like, yeah, I went through three or four sawzall blades trying to vent my kick panels they're going through this screen, burned up a bunch of discs, a grinder disc and the sawzall blades were shot. I'm like I could have used a hammer and a chisel to get through mine just to peel them back up. So right now I don't know if you've seen it I haven't posted too much because I started the rebuild and I got busy with some very pressing home projects that needed done. But I got it in my trunk about five weeks ago just so it was gutted out and left me no choice but to finish it. But so right now probably next week I'm going to be starting on it again and I'm going to make a push the next couple weeks to try to make it to finals in october, in a month. So I'm going to be busy on it.
Speaker 1:But I'm rebuilding the trunk now to put two 18s and true ib, one in each rear quarter panel and pretty much the same way I did the front end of you know, cutting the entire back corner of the car out, welding in a new structure and mounting them, and I've got some ideas for refreshing the look of the trunk and that's kind of where I saw how, how flimsy a lot of the sheet metal is on these cars on. Once it's cut out, it's very hard to rebuild a structure back, to stiffen everything up to be at the level it needs to be. So that's going to be probably starting Monday. I think I got time to get back into this and I think in the next month I'm going to be on a pretty big crunch and I'll be back to posting updates on DEMA every couple of days on my progress. So interested to see what the second refresh 2025 will look like. It's coming soon.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're getting back in there, huh, yep. So what do you wish you knew now, or what do you wish you knew when you first started? Now that you've been through the grind and you know in hindsight 2020 and you're like, oh man, I wish I knew this when I first started. Would have saved a lot of headache, a lot of money, a lot of time man that's.
Speaker 1:That's kind of a tricky one. So it's more like just as you're just kind of honing your skills, the more you tear into it and the more problems you get past and overcome. I don't know if I could say like something I wish I knew before I started out. There's been a lot of stuff that I've had a, you know, kind of a vision in my head the whole time. You pre-plan it, pre-plan it out to the build, and having the end goal in sight is what saves you the most headache of not tearing into it too quick without knowing what's going on. The couple parts of the project here and there where I'm like, all right, I know what I want, but I don't have a picture in my head of getting there. That's where you start losing most time because you're kind of making it up on the fly. So really, the pre-planning and pre-research and have an idea of what you're getting into saves you more headache in the long run versus just ripping apart and then staring at an empty canvas not knowing where to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the things I wish I knew because I would get in there, and I wish I knew how important the tuning was. I feel like that's really like that's one of the the single most important things, besides the sound deadening and the sound treatment. I think that's like number one. But tuning is like number one dash a one, dash two when it comes to doing your system. Cause it like I've gotten in the car and been like man this sounds like crap. And then I had a buddy of mine tuned the car and it just totally transformed the car when I was about to rip components out and start doing things again. And it and the components are fine.
Speaker 1:It just needed a good tune, you know yeah, I think that I think the tuning part comes with. The more cars you're able to listen to of other people's, it becomes more apparent like tuning is absolutely like the final cherry on top. But even the best tune still can't cover up flaws in your install or location choices. You can get it to sound really good in the end with the tune, but if you're sitting there picking it apart clinically, a lot of stuff in the install makes a big difference in the final outcome as well. So the install is just as much trial and error as the tuning is A lot of like.
Speaker 1:My basic locations have been pretty close to the same since I've started four years ago. There's just been slight tweaks in the install or how it was put in or where tweeters were mounted. I've played with a bunch of different positions for tweeters and that ends up making a big difference. Even if it's tuned correctly, there's still stuff you can't physically get around that makes a difference in the presentation Not as much overall sound, but in the presentation of stage dimensions or location and stuff like that. So the install just comes from trial and error and sometimes you just can't get around that when it's not as much of the component as just the location.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. It's a lot of testing and tuning and I think sometimes half the fun is the journey.
Speaker 1:The way I look at it, like I keep getting people saying why are you doing so much? I'm like, well, I honestly enjoy the build as much, if not more, than, the end result. I'm like, don't do that, it's not worth it. No, actually, I know it's not worth it, I just enjoy the process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly it's. It's. It's the hunt you know and and the last extra percentage of you know, it's good, but I think it could be better. I think a lot of us are like that.
Speaker 2:You know, we, we just keep on tinkering and and I know I mean I, I got more money in my car than I care to even admit, but and I think to myself, just wish the kick base was a little bit better. What can I do do? And it's like you know, sometimes I gotta stop myself. It does get expensive, quick, you know, but I don't even think about the money anymore because to me it's, you know, it's the smile that it puts on my face. So so, chris, we're gonna wrap it up. We got a little over an hour, let me see. So you got your build thread on dyma right on the do it yourself mobile audio website and also you got a video with Peter, the man himself from PS Sound at SVR on YouTube. Correct?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's two videos from Nick on the Resnick's channel on my car too. He did one at the first finals and then he did one at Luke's event, and then I have the one of Peter from Steel Valley this year.
Speaker 2:There's a couple of them and what's your handle on Dy, on dyma, so if the listeners want to follow your, your journey online uh, chris p2493 chris p2493. Yep, all right, buddy. Well, that wraps it up, man, thank you for coming on. Hang on for a second. Okay, I'm gonna put this. Put a row bow on this and wrap it up.